P.S. – the Powerhouse Message at the End of Every Letter

People no longer simply watch TV and enjoy the show. They are simultaneously on their laptops or tablets posting updates on Facebook, on their phones texting friends and tweeting, and probably doing ALL of this while driving, eating and reading the paper (on their kindle of course!)

In other words, many have poor focusing skills and can’t concentrate on anything for more than a few seconds, chances are since you’ve started reading this, you’ve also checked your email 47 times and clicked on the FREE book offer banner to the right.

While I would gladly launch every cell phone and social media platform into the sea because of what it’s doing to our society and work ethic, but instead of fighting this, I find it best to tweak the strategies I’ve used for decades in print that are more important today than ever before. One such strategy is the effective use of the post script or P.S.

Here are several reasons you need to add a p.s. in virtually everything you do, print, online, email and blogs…

The post script of P.S. is meant for those who are attention-challenged, and those who prefer to scan rather than read.

Many people often read the headline and then jump right to the P.S. They concentrate on the beginning and the end, but hardly anyone ever jumps to the middle.

The P.S. can serve as a valuable component that summarizes your offer. For those who want to “cut to the chase”, the P.S. is the place to go to for a quick recap.

The P.S. can serve as a platform for the most important benefit. It’s just another way to reaffirm and drive home what is the most attractive aspect of your product or service.

For added urgency, the P.S. can be used to state a specific deadline or expiration date and increase the likelihood of a response.

To provide supportive information of interest to the reader, the P.S. can sometimes include testimonials or favorable opinions and recommendations from recognized authorities.

If there’s an extra bonus, premium or add-on being offered as an incentive, the P.S is a good place to mention this response lifter.

Another element commonly found in the P.S. is any kind of guarantee or promise. This type of message instills a sense of trust – the product or service is so good and since the reader is definitely going to love it, all they have to do is try it. The compelling feature here is the elimination of risk on the part of the reader. They literally have nothing to lose.

If you want to make your P.S. visually stand out and jump off the page (or screen), here are some tactical graphic strategies you could try.

Bump up the type size a point or two larger than the body copy

Try a different typeface from the one used in the body copy

If your P.S. is very short and to-the-point, try using all capital letters or make the typeface bold

Make the P.S. appear in a different color that contrasts from the body copy

Have the P.S. appear in a handwritten font

If the P.S. appears in a handwritten font, include letter initials of the person signing the letter to make it appear to be a personal message

Enclose the P.S. inside a box or put a contrasting screened color in the background

Include a simple graphic to go along with the P.S. copy (an arrow, a smiley face, a design element, dotted line leading to the reply device or click-on button, etc.)

When it comes to content and manner of delivery, here are three different P.S. styles to consider. Depending on the main objective of the sales letter, each of these three styles could work well.

Straightforward – Your P.S. restates the offer and stresses the deadline. This covers the essence of what the letter is really all about.

Takeaway – This type of P.S. tells the reader this is not for you if … “If working hard, thinking on your feet and earning lots of money doesn’t interest you, then this offer is not for you …”

Here’s another example of a takeaway P.S.: “This is not for you if you are unwilling to do the dirty work and put in at least ten hours each week.”

The takeaway actually builds trust and integrity. The P.S. is telling them “this is not for you” and “here’s why this is not for you”. The reader doesn’t want to admit to being lazy or otherwise of questionable character, so they’re “compelled” to respond and give what you’re offering a try.

Extra add-on – If there’s an unexpected bonus or extra to push, it’s one more reason to get those sitting on the fence to make a commitment.

As far as the length of the P.S., there is no right or wrong answer here. A short P.S. is usually one long sentence or possibly two average length sentences. On the other end of the spectrum, some elaborate sales letters use a P.S. that can go on for an extra page, two pages or more.

Sometimes it makes sense to use a second P.S., called a P.P.S. (or as Gary Halbert famously did it p.s. #2) This method makes sense if there’s an extra bonus not mentioned earlier anywhere in the copy, an incentive or giveaway to promote or an unusual or absolute guarantee to talk about.

Every element within a sales letter (the offer, salutation, bullet points, closing, call-to-action) has a specific purpose based on its function. And although it may come last in sequential order of a standard sales letter, the P.S. has an important role to fulfill. It should never be treated as an afterthought or put together hastily and incidentally.

P.S. I’ve personally known Russell Brunson for nearly a decade. And by the looks of him that would indicate that I’ve known him since he was six years old. Russell though is one of the most successful marketers I know who specializes in online strategies.

He’s releasing his first book and is offering to give it to you for “free” though from what I hear you’ll need to spend about five bucks for him to actually ship it to you. Still probably worth that meager investment.

In any case I can not say I specialize in the strategies Russell employs online, but I can absolutely tell you he uses what’s worked offline for decades, centuries actually, and cracked the code to make them work in an online world. Russell, coming from a mindset of abundance, is sharing his strategies with you and actually encouraging you to use them.

He’s actually even released the exact tools he uses to people who really want to duplicate what he’s done (while he comes from a mindset of abundance, he also knows that sadly most people will never actually use the strategies he outlines or the tools he provides.)

In any case…click here to get his book Dotcom Secrets now and make sure you aren’t like most who when given the keys to the kingdom, put them into a drawer instead of a keyhole.

P.S. – the Powerhouse Message at the End of Every Letter was last modified: March 26th, 2015 by Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice. For more money-making marketing tips, tactics and strategies, go to www.GKIC.com

5 Responses

Dan,
Wow! I have to say that your emails are really the only emails that I read for pure information. I own a healthcare consulting company in New York City, MLTC Consulting, that has customers all over the US and I find your info really useful. Of course I do, but what is really surprising is that you pack your emails with useful free info.

The only other person to do this is Bob Bly. However, I find Bob’s emails so boring that I rarely ever open them. Bob is a nice and knowledgeable guy so my apologies to Bob. But what is knowledge if it is boring? Well, the answer is it might as well be hieroglyphics because I won’t read it. In fact, you taught me that.

Anyway Dan, thanks for the great info. Anybody would be a fool not to invest in and study your value information.
All the best,
Michael T. Irvin

PS Sometimes I post and never see my posts again. I really believe that it would be beneficial to your SEO rankings to allow lots of people to post and to actually show the posts.

The PS is like Columbo’s “just one more thing,” therefore to the reader perhaps the most important part of the message and the last thing they will remember reading. Of course there was a PS to this letter too, and I read it and got the book by Russell. Thanks!!!

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